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Rich Wallace, the author of this article, is the editor of the magazine Highlights for Children. In the article,
he offers advice for students who hope to publish their writing. Read the article and then answer the
questions that follow.
[Internet editor's note: The horizontal dark lines under the two sets of footnotes represent page breaks in the printed document.]
Editors Are Real People Too
by Rich Wallace
Senior Editor, Highlights for Children
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When I was a kid, my favorite part of any magazine I read was always the jokes and riddles. That's the first section I'd turn to in Highlights for Children or Humpty Dumpty in my annual visits to the dentist's office. And, as a subscriber to Boys' Life, it's also the section I often submitted work to, hoping to find myself published. |
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It never happened. Even when I was sure I'd discovered the funniest joke, told it with perfect timing and sent it off in the mail, I'd invariably1 see that same joke published (and told better than I had done) a month or two later, attributed to2 some other kid. |
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Many years later, after I'd become an editor at Highlights, I realized just how enormous was the competition for space on the pages of those magazines. At Highlights, we receive more than a thousand pieces of mail from our readers each week, and nearly all of those envelopes include work being submitted for publication: stories, poems, drawings, jokes, riddles, tongue twisters and other items. And even though we devote a fair amount of space to kids' work each month—about five or six pages, on average—it is still only a tiny fraction of that volume that ever gets into print. |
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Ask any editor at Highlights and they'll tell you that the single hardest job we have is choosing which pieces of kids' work to publish. With stacks and stacks of creative writing and drawings to look through each month, how do we determine which pieces should get in? It's not an easy job. |
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Let me tell you about the process. First I should say that we don't expect
jokes, riddles or tongue twisters to be original. Of course, as editors, we've read
most of the more common jokes and such a thousand times, so we probably won't |
1invariably — without fail
2attributed to — credited to
| | be as tickled by "Why did the chicken cross the road?" as by a joke we've never heard before. But items like these feel somehow like community property,3 so we're happy to share a joke that a kid has heard in school or elsewhere. |
| 6 | But when it comes to stories and poems, we seek originality without fail. Some kids do submit poems that they've read or heard elsewhere. Published work is protected by copyright laws, of course, and we wouldn't want to give someone credit for work that is not their own. We are very careful to have all poems we are considering checked by an expert, but occasionally a poem that's been copied will slip by us all and get into print. It's not only embarrassing, but it's aggravating to know that the poem took space that could have been devoted to another child's original work. |
| 7 | So be original. And be creative. |
| 8 | I love poems and stories that only could have been written by one specific kid. That is, if you've had a funny experience with your cat or a deep thought while watching the moon come up, find a way to tell about it that makes it yours alone. The poems or stories that seem to jump out at us as we work our way through a stack are the ones that convey a child's very own senses and emotions. The writer's words help us share that experience. And that makes us want to publish the work. |
| 9 | Editors select things for publication that move them in some way. This is true of the stories, poems and articles we purchase from adult writers as well as the work we select from our readers. Any piece that causes me to react—to smile or be entertained or even to feel sad—will definitely get a second look. If it has made me feel some emotion, then it will do the same for other readers as well. |
| 10 | Here are my top tips for any kid hoping to submit stories or poems to Highlights. (I've already given two of them, but I'll repeat them because they're so important.) |
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| | 1. | Be original. We can nearly always detect copied work. |
| | 2. | Be creative. We read lots of poems about falling leaves. Either find another subject or find a new way to tell us. |
| | 3. | Be careful. It does make a difference if words are misspelled or writing is not neat. Always check your work and recopy it if necessary. Carefully prepared pages let us know that the writer takes pride in his or her work. |
| | 4. | Be patient. You will receive a letter or postcard letting you know that we've received your work, but it will be at least six months before your work might be published. And the chances are great that it won't be. We always encourage kids to keep writing and drawing and to be proud of their creative work, whether it is published or not. |
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3community property — something shared by many people
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| | 5. | Be aware. It will be obvious from looking through a few issues of
Highlights that we don't publish lengthy poems and stories by children.
Pay attention to the type of work that your magazine is publishing. Most
kids' magazines list some sort of guidelines in their pages.... |
| | 6. | Keep trying. The more you write or draw, the better you will become at
it. Successful writers and artists keep at it for a long time, and that is
true of children as well as adults. |
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From "Editors Are Real People Too" by Rich Wallace, which appeared in The Young Writer's Guide to Getting Published copyright © 2002 by
Kathy Henderson. Used with permission of Writer's Digest Books, a division of F+W Publications, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio. All rights reserved.
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